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Friday, June 29, 2012

Friday's With Blinky: Anything You Say Mr. J

The follow up to Call Me Mr. J with the same main characters in Chris .R. Notarile as Joker and Johanna Telander as Harley Quinn.

This time we pick up after the last session with Joker in the the chaos of murder that follows during his escape. We open with a doctor tied to a chair, Joker covered in blood and Harley Quinn looking a little worse for wear. The short follows Harley's letting the last of herself go before truly embracing the Harley Quinn persona.

There really isn't much more to say about this one. It's a good little character piece. Chris seems more comfortable as Joker and Johanna does a good job making the transition from 'normie' to psycho. The setting is dark and disturbing, this little out of the way, perhaps under construction or possibly forgotten area of Arkham with a doctor that Joker blames for his recent trouble. It's a good portrayal of the Heath Ledger style Joker as more of a homage than direct impression which, I think, makes it better. So many people now, especially on YouTube, try to directly ape the Ledger style Joker thinking that the closer you get to a direct impression the better. But the thing is only one person could do that Joker and he (meaning Heath Ledger) did it. It's an interesting take on Joker and there's no reason to not add elements of it to a portrayal of the Joker but Chris' performance isn't just him doing a Heath Ledger impression. He takes that base and builds on it. The awkwardness in the acting in the first one may come from trying to do a more direct impression but this time around you don't get that feeling, it's similar but different, which makes it infinitely more watchable than something like "The Joker Blogs".

Kim Santiago does a good job in the director seat again. We get a good atmospheric soundtrack with the occasional rock exclamation points and a good ending theme. The camera angles are a bit more run of the mill but we see a lot more of the Joker next to Harley with the same low angle shots to establish them as more on the same level. Well done all around.

It's a good ramp up for what's coming up next so I recommend checking it out.